The Albany situation is sad. Two African American funerals
at the end of February are suspected to have started the spread.

No one was doing social distancing at the end of February.

Fast food centric diets

Overweight

Smokers

Preexisting conditions linked to smoking and being overweight

Detroit News has picked up this phenom:

Michigan's COVID-19 cases, deaths hit blacks disproportionately

CRAIG MAUGER, CHRISTINE MACDONALD | THE DETROIT NEWS

Lansing — At least 40% of those killed by the novel coronavirus in Michigan so far are black, a percentage that far exceeds the proportion of African Americans in the Detroit region and state.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/04/02/michigans-covid-19-deaths-hit-417-cases-exceed-10-700/5113221002/

Before people jump on the racist bandwagon, how many of those who died in Italy or Spain are of African heritage? Hmm?

I do think virus spreads can be explained in part by culture (it spread quickly through the Orthodox Jewish communities in NYC for example), so a superspreader breakout can happen at closely-knit African American churches, which seems to be how it first broke out in Albany, GA. Combine that with heart disease and hyperextension and you get your answer. One of the earliest family group breakout in Pennsylvania was an Italian-American family group that had met for their weekly sunday dinner and killed three of the family members, and the entire family was overweight and some were heavy smokers.

Social distancing is a privilege.

Anonymous wrote:It's not affecting AAs disproportionately. It's affecting unhealthy people in general.

Yes.

Also a lot of people who are refusing to not go to church or community gatherings (usually church or synanogue related).

It has hit the Jewish community harshly as well as the ultra Christians like the Hillsong Church and the Southern Baptists in Louisiana.

It's not affecting AAs disproportionately. It's affecting unhealthy people in general.

First of all, we need to get out of this mindset from months ago that the virus affects jetsetters and airports. It's EVERYWHERE now in all communities.

As to your question, inner city poverty like in New Orleans and Detroit has a lot of risk factors--lots of people in poor health--diabetes, heart disease, obesity. Not to mention Detroit has an older population than the average in the US because younger people have fled because of the poor economic outlook. And, the hospitals these populations use are often poorly funded public hospitals that have been subject to cuts and are serving a huge population because other hospitals in the area have closed.

Finally, people may not be able to effectively socially distance in poor urban areas. Many people have larger numbers of people in a home (relatives, friends, etc.), plus they are more likely to use shared facilities like laundry, etc. Not to mention that people have to go out more to get groceries because they have less money to stock up and don't have cars to haul bulk items so they are limited by what they can carry. Not having cars also means they often have to take public buses to get to the grocery store, medical appointments, work, etc.

And speaking of work, a lot of low-income people work in low-paid essential jobs that see exposure--not just grocery store clerks and gas station attendants but also things in the healthcare system with high risk like home health aide, nursing aide, hospital orderly, hospital laundry staff, etc...and if doctors aren't getting masks, hospital orderlies sure as hell are not.

Ignore all other comments. One word: Church

The virus is spread by droplets, singing hymns in church expels the droplets long distances.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak

Disparities in racial healthcare likely has a role as well. It has also been noted that black patients symptoms are not always treated as accurately or taken as seriously as other races. Serena Williams even with her celebrity had issues post partum with her health issues not being seriously treated.

Anonymous wrote:1) Because health care is poorer in black neighborhoods.
2) Because black Americans tend to be in poorer health overall (due to institutional racism, higher rates of poverty, etc)
3) Because black Americans probably tend to work the kinds of jobs deemed essential (low income work at grocery stores, delivery services, food services, janitorial work, public sector utilities, etc) and are therefore more likely to be exposed right now.

Just for starts.

All of this. Plus because of the poorer health care, there is a lot of uncontrolled HBP, diabetes etc that are preexisting conditions for a bad infection.

Anonymous wrote:1) Because health care is poorer in black neighborhoods.
2) Because black Americans tend to be in poorer health overall (due to institutional racism, higher rates of poverty, etc)
3) Because black Americans probably tend to work the kinds of jobs deemed essential (low income work at grocery stores, delivery services, food services, janitorial work, public sector utilities, etc) and are therefore more likely to be exposed right now.

Just for starts.

Yes. Look at the videos from NYC, the minorities are still using public transportation, stuffed as sardines, to go to work - no option to telework. Also, AAs have the highest asthma and asthma death rates, so add a killer virus to this statistic.

Poor people of all melanin levels are more likely to have health problems like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. and are more likely to be smokers.

1) Because health care is poorer in black neighborhoods.
2) Because black Americans tend to be in poorer health overall (due to institutional racism, higher rates of poverty, etc)
3) Because black Americans probably tend to work the kinds of jobs deemed essential (low income work at grocery stores, delivery services, food services, janitorial work, public sector utilities, etc) and are therefore more likely to be exposed right now.

Just for starts.

Looking at the county data for my husband’s home state Michigan, it’s quite clear this is concentrating in majority black zip codes. How, why? It can’t just be airport travel — poor are not jetsetters and some of these hotspot pockets are an hour away from DPW airport. Any theories?

Here’s one bus driver in Detroit who was complaining about riders coughing on his Facebook Live...2 weeks later he died.
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/detroit-bus-driver-dies-of-covid-19-weeks-after-complaining-of-passengers-cough